When you search for a city or town in Google, there is an information box that appears to the right of the search results. This box has an image, a map, a description, the weather, the population and links for planning trips. The image is pulled from a number of sources, and it does not always represent the place searched for.
For the most part, the images for Indian towns are breathtaking… there are skylines of buildings, aerial photographs, waterfalls, mountains and landmarks. At times these beautiful images are interrupted by random people in the foreground. The unremarkable ones have photos of railway stations or local streets. A handful however, are disturbing, scenes of disasters, mob violence, dead animals and accidents.
Man-Animal conflict
Google for Chandarpur in Maharashtra and you get an image of two men rescuing a leopard. The leopard has just caught the men by surprise and has jumped 18 feet straight up in the air, bursting through a roof. An experienced wildlife activist and forest officials managed to rescue the leopard in the crowded area even after getting bitten by the animal.
Image: Akash Deep Ashok/ India Today
Googling for Nandgaon shows a mob of men attacking a leopard and wildlife officials. Manawar has an unsettling image of a six year old mauled by a panther. Umred is an example of where wildlife is shown in the right way as the default search image, with a photo of a majestic tiger.
Accidents
The Google search result for Charkhi Dadri shows a screen capture from a simulated animation by National Geographic of what is known as the Charkhi Dadri Air Crash. The mid air collision happened between Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747-100B and a Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 on 12 November, 1996.
Image: Deepak Oinam
Look for Thoubal in Manipur and you get the above image of a group of people pulling out a vehicle from a flooded river. Googling for Sainthia in West Bengal shows an image of a train collision at the railway station that happened on 19 July, 2010.
Dead Elephants
These are gory and disturbing images of dead elephants that show up as the default image on a Google search. Alipurduar shows a group of people performing the last rites of an elephant that has been hit by a train. The image is from an article on the large number of elephants killed in West Bengal by the railways, either through collisions or after being electrocuted by the power lines.
A live elephant. Image: Jayanand Govindaraj
A Google search for Sathyamangalam in Tamil Nadu shows an image of an Elephant that was foraging in the periphery of the Sathyamangalam wildlife sanctuary, and stumbled upon a live wire hidden in the bushes. We do not want to suddenly see dead Elephants, Google, when searching for towns.
Human conflict
A Google search for Golaghat shows an image from an incident of mob violence. An angry mob of protesters went on a rampage against the police, after accusing the police of an unprovoked attack. Two people were killed and several vehicles burned during the protests.
Investors dragging an agent to court in Rayagada. Image: Orissa Post.
A search for Rayagada in Odisha shows an image of chit fund investors dragging an agent to the court in the hopes of recovering their money. The police arrived and detained the agents, and pacified the protestors. We are sure there is more to Rayagada than this incident.
Fires
Google searches for Pulgaon and Manwath in Maharashtra show images of fires. The fire in Pulgaon was at the largest ammunition depot of the military in the country. Two army officers, a jawan and 13 civilian fire fighters were killed in the blaze.
Image: Zee News.
The image for Manwath is from a Zee 24 taas News, a local Marathi news channel report of an office fire, where important documents of the local people were permanently destroyed.
Movies
A search for Tittakudi in Tamil Nadu throws up a still from the movie Thittakudi. The review from where the image is pulled does not seem to be too impressed by the movie.
How Google represents Tittakudi.
Random industrial things
At times, Google pulls up images from the company web sites of industries located in the city or town being searched for. The search for Rajagangapur shows up something known as a Packing Machine from a company called OCL India.
The default Google search image for Thangadh. Image: Anmol Ceramics.
A Google search for Thangadh, shows an image from Anmol Ceramics, a company that manufactures Kiln Furniture and ceramic insulation bricks. A search for Vapi shows a disgusting image of environmental activists checking industrial waste for toxic chemicals and heavy metals.
Do you know of an search image for an Indian city or town that needs to be changed? We expect there are some more photos out there, from random group portraits, to photos from educational institutions, to bunches of monkeys on rooftops… do post your findings in the comments section below.
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